Darkness Before Dawn
by Tiny Teddy Bear
Summary: They each have their nightmares to face, but the night is always darkest before dawn. Draco/Luna. Sequel to 'Stained Glass'. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to Harry Potter._

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Draco isn't sure what woke him, for an instant. The room's dark grey and the air is crisply cold, but the bed is warm and soft. Then his wife moves beside him again, a little, spasmodic, terrified judder, and his heart thuds against his chest.

He pushes up on one elbow, snatching at his wand, handy on the table beside his bed, and creates a sphere of soft illumination with a muttered 'Lumos!'

Luna's lying half-curled on her side, frozen, her eyes squeezed shut. The ghost of a whimper parts her lips, and she seems afraid to move, shrinking small and white into herself.

'Luna!' he says urgently. 'Luna, what's wrong?' And he reaches both hands out quickly to touch her.

But she doesn't reply, or open her eyes, her body shivering beneath his hands like a terrified trapped creature, and he realises that she's in the grip of some nightmare.

'Luna,' he says again, and moves his hand to push her tangled hair away from her terrified face, out of her tightly closed eyes. He feels wetness on her cheeks, silvery tears like trails of moonlight leaking from beneath her eyelashes. 'Sweetheart, it's all right. Wake up. Listen to me, darling. It's Draco.'

It's as though the sound of his name brings her out of her trance, and her eyes snap open, huge and grey and disorientated, glancing about wildly before fixing on his face.

'Draco,' she chokes out on a half-sob. He opens his arms to her at the same time as she pitches towards him, grabbing his pyjama shirt urgently, burying her face in his chest and burrowing into him. He holds her, close and warm and tight against her trembling, feeling her heart racing, the rhythm of her sobs, gulped out against him.

'Luna,' he says after a while, and brings his hand up to stroke the nape of her neck. His fingers run through the soft under-curls of her hair, then gently trace the bumps of her spine, one – two – three. He slips below the neckline of her nightgown, running his finger beneath it, back and forth, soothing, reassuring, and he feels her relax a little more, the drumming of her heart slowing slightly. 'Luna, sweetest, do you want to tell me about it?' he says quietly.

She nestles against him for a few moments, then slowly lifts her face to his, drawing in a deep breath. 'It – it was… _her_… Bellatrix,' she says softly, struggling for composure, but then her voice catches on another sob and goes higher, wavering. 'Just – please – kiss me now, Draco… kiss – please…?'

He bends swiftly over her and covers her lips with his own, kissing her deeply, gently, pouring in every bit of reassurance he can. Tiny shaking sobs keep rising in her throat, but she kisses him back urgently, clinging to him, and he can taste the salt-sweetness of her tears.

He caresses her body with his hands, slow and sure, down her back, her hips, then up again and over her shoulders, down her arms… She quietens beneath his touch, as though she's drinking it in, and her little sobs grow fewer as he goes on kissing her, slowly, tenderly, thoroughly.

They break the kiss eventually, and he cups her fair head in one hand, drawing it to rest on his shoulder, rubbing soothing circles onto her back. As the last of her shaking dies away, she goes soft and yielding against him. She lifts her little white fingers and traces slowly over his collarbone, lingering at the points where his pulse beats the strongest, as though for reassurance.

When she speaks, it's into his neck, softly, her breath sending little shivers over his skin. 'She was – shrieking, Draco… shrieking and laughing, and I couldn't move or make a noise or she would do something terrible, she had her knife out.' She stops, another little shudder running through her, and he moves his head slightly to press his lips gently to her temple.

'Poor darling,' he murmurs into the curls at her hairline. The instinct of protection, possession, is humming through him, deep and innate, and he tightens his hold about her a fraction. She gives a little sigh of relief and content.

'I was so scared, I wanted you so much, Draco… she was in the cellar, and she shrieked louder and louder, it burnt through my head.' She takes a deep breath. 'It hurt – so much, and then everything seemed to be getting smaller and tighter, as though the walls were squeezing in. Pushing me closer to her and the knife. And her eyes were crazy…'

Her hand clenches around the flannel collar of his pyjama top, and he spreads his own larger hand over it, caressing the taut fingers, rubbing little circles over her small tight knuckles. 'It's all right. It was just a dream,' he says, and then, very quietly, into the hair above her ear, 'Oh, darling… I'm so sorry – so sorry.'

She cuddles the softness of her body into him, and shifts her head, a little, to slowly kiss his neck. He feels the tingle of her tongue, poking out to taste his skin, and he smiles slightly against her forehead.

'I love you,' she says softly, and she's so close that the words vibrate deliciously against his throat, his skin. 'You were so – gentle – there in the cellar…'

'Gentle?' he says, thinking he hasn't heard her right.

'Yes,' she says, and takes in a little quick breath that's a bit like a laugh and a bit like a sob. 'You used to put your arm around me – carefully, like you thought I might get bruised.'

'It was my fault you were there,' he says, in a low voice, 'indirectly.' His fingers move in light circles on her face, caressing her forehead and cheek and the curving line of her jaw.

'I missed you so much…' she says. 'When you were away, back at Hogwarts during the term… and _she_ came…' She trails off, and they both reach for the other's hand at the same time.

'Oh, Luna,' he says, very quiet. Her hand snuggles within his, her small fingers curling and twining with his longer ones.

They're silent for a long while, still, drawing comfort from each other's closeness, their bodies soothingly warm and cuddled together.

'I used to lie there, curled up,' she murmurs at last, 'thinking about – you, Draco… it seemed so long, so long and – dark, and alone.'

'I know…' he says into her hair. 'I was – so scared for you, all that time. And it was so… lonely, at school, and I – I wanted you so much…'

She quivers against him, but not, he thinks, with fear, this time. 'Luna… _darling_…' he breathes, and tugs her back down with him, bending across her and dropping light burning kisses about her mouth, first on one corner, then the other, the little dip at the centre of her top lip…

'Oh, _Draco_…' she murmurs, thrilling to him, her hands soaking small warm patches on his shoulder and chest. And their bodies twine together, nightmares and darkness and fear driven away by joy and long forgotten.

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_This two-shot follows my longer Draco/Luna story 'Stained Glass' - if you enjoyed this, please take a look!_

_I'll be posting the next part soon. Please leave a review!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to Harry Potter._

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_Pitiless anger. Scarlet fire. Pain, pain like a thousand knives, piercing, tearing his eyes, his chest, his legs, his stomach, and he couldn't draw the strength to brace himself against it._

_Writhing on the floor, sobbing, whimpering in his agony, a blood-red haze about him, a high cruel voice throbbing at his eardrums._

'_Pathetic fools… oh, you will taste more of my – displeasure… CRUCIO!'_

_And the pain clarified and focused until his body was the centre of the maelstrom of anger, and he sank – deeper – deeper – into roiling fever-blackness… everything was going blank…_

_Now he was encased in the dark, a clammy clinging fog… he could see images through the shadowy mist that shifted before him…_

_Long, rippled, tangling moon-gold hair… Luna! Luna!_

_He reached for her, reached frenzied hands through the shadows, his fingers bone-white, clawing, skeletal before his eyes. He was almost there…_

_But she was crumpled on the blackened ground now – utterly motionless, face set in the waxy pallor of death, her splintered wand drooping from her rigid hand. Blood was smeared at her hairline, over the stillness of her chest, at the corner of her mouth._

_No… NO!_

_He was screaming, but without sound, as though there was a Silencing Charm on him – screaming – his throat raw – dropping to his knees, slashing his nails across his face like some feral creature, tears like droplets of fire tracing stinging tracks down his face._

_You did this – you murdered her – you did it – you did it – you – YOU…_

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'Draco. Draco. Shh. It's all right. Shh-shh.'

Light touches over his face – forehead, eyes, nose, chin. Kisses. Lips on lips, feather-down-soft. Small gentle hands on his cheeks. Long silky hair falling across his shoulder, his chest… Luna!

He jerks upright in one movement, hands flying to her shoulders, gripping roughly at the warm aliveness of her, sucking in huge spasmodic gulps of air. 'Not dead,' he says chokily, 'you're not dead…'

Her fingertips are at his cheeks, smoothing away wetness. 'Not dead, I'm alive. Everything's all right. Shh.' She looks up into his face, eyes big and grey and steadfast, like she'll stay with him till the world's end.

'You were… he was…' His fingers slide into the hair framing her face, his thumbs stroking her temples softly. 'No blood…' His breath catches in his throat again, and a part of him knows vaguely how stupid it sounds, how childish.

But Luna looks at him a moment more, tenderly. 'My poor boy,' she says, very low, and all the mother-instinct of womanhood is in the words. Then she hugs him tightly, slim arms wrapping around as much of him as she can reach, fingertips rubbing soft circles on his bare back.

His face is buried in the night-tangled ripples of her hair, wiping away the last traces of dampness. 'Not crying,' he says into the soft skin of her shoulder, aiming for a calm, collected tone; but his arms betray him, locking round her like they'll never let go.

She doesn't say anything, just rubs her head softly against him, and her hair tickles his skin. He closes his eyes, drinking in the warm _living_ feel of her body, the light fan of her breath on his bare chest, the steady, delicate thrum of her heartbeat.

Then she reaches up, and touches his face with her hand, cupping his cheek in her palm, caressing his chin, his lips, with the soft pad of her thumb. And, as always with Luna, he finds himself telling her everything, the words spilling out, stumbling. But it never has mattered, with her, how broken he sounds or how much he tangles the telling.

'I – he was torturing me – Cruciatus… it hurt, so much. And then – you were – dead. Blood on – your face, in your hair, everywhere.' He takes a deep unsteady breath and runs his fingers through her long fair locks. 'It was – all my fault…'

'Oh, Draco,' she says softly.

'I'm sorry – sorry,' he says wretchedly. 'All those months – you were a prisoner – I did nothing to –'

She cuts off his words with her hand over his mouth, and, as he blinks at her, she says matter-of-factly, 'I don't think you did nothing.'

'But…' he says, when she takes her hand away.

'Shh,' she says, and looks at him consideringly, her head tipped a little to one side. Then she disentangles herself, and crawls away from him and out of bed, slipping her hand in his and tugging. 'Come on.'

'Luna, what…?'

'Come on, we're going outside,' she says dreamily, and tugs again.

'But – what if someone…'

'I don't think anyone will see us, it's our own grounds,' she says, and her eyes are laughing at him, and her mouth is doing that little curly thing at the edges that makes him want to snatch her and kiss her.

'Well, if my mother knew…' he says doubtfully, but he follows her out of the house and into the garden.

It's before dawn, that twilight time when the sky begins to lighten, streakily, before the sun actually breaches the horizon. The grass is soft, dew-wet, and Luna's standing in it with bare feet, but of course she doesn't mind. And then she looks up at him and smiles, and he thinks that she's the brightest thing there, luminous in and of herself.

She still has her hand in his, and she reaches out her other hand to him and pulls, laughing, so that they spin round and round each other in equal orbit, like two children. She bounces sometimes, landing lightly on her toes like a fairy.

He still wants to kiss her, and he tries to pull her closer. But she breaks free with a mischievous look and dances out of his reach, giggling, twirling in the cool morning air.

'Catch me!' And she turns and starts running.

'You crazy little thing!' he says, and lunges in pursuit.

He's faster than her, and he corners her, but she's quick and little and writhes out from his arms before he can get her fairly in his grip. Then she darts off, just out of reach, changing direction like a snitch, trying to confuse him.

He looks at her with narrowed eyes, pressing his lips together, calculating the distance. Then he lunges, quick as a flash, quite as though she _is _a snitch to be caught and won. He snatches her arms tightly, dropping to the soft grass, pulling her with him, and then rolling on top of her to pin her down.

'And I win!' he says, low and triumphant. She stops struggling and smiles up at him, her eyes grey and soft and full of the light of the new dawn.

'You win,' she agrees. 'I surrender…'

He gives a breath of a laugh and bends his head slowly over hers. And their lips meet, and he kisses her, long and lovely and achingly tender, as the sun rises above the horizon for a new day.

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_Please leave a review!_

_This follows my longer Draco/Luna story 'Stained Glass' - if you enjoyed this, have a look...  
_

_I will be posting a new story sometime - hopefully fairly soon! - which will include Draco/Luna as a couple... so keep an eye out if you're interested._


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